Teacher Modeling. Modeling is when teachers read aloud to their students and explain their thought process while doing so. Teachers can ask questions to themselves, pause for thought, create a visual image, and look up a difficult word while reading. This helps students learn how to work through difficult material. This also allows students to understand that even educated teachers need to work on figuring out challenging material. Teachers can also model the way that they work through difficult math problems. Not only will this help students understand different strategies, but it will also build confidence and trust.
Make connections. With literature, teachers encourage students to make connections between the book and themselves (text to self), between the book and another book (text to text), and between the book and the world (text to world). These connections help the students understand the real world relevance of the book, thereby making it more accessible. Math teachers can also encourage students to make connections between the math problem to themselves (math to self), between the math problem to another math problem (math to math), and between the math problem and the world (math to world). Added relevance will encourage students to invest more in the problem solving.
KWL Charts. When starting a new book, teachers often have students fill out a KWL chart, assessing what they know, want to learn, and then ultimately what they learned after reading the book. Here is a sample chart:
This metacognition (thinking about what you are learning) helps students process and solidify their knowledge. This same KWL chart can be applied to math as easily as it applies to reading.
Can poetry and numbers happily collaborate? It’s not as easy as 1, 2, 3, but using strategies from reading instruction can help with problem solving abilities in math. Let’s work on math literacy!